Mike Chase, center left, kisses his partner Matthew Montoya on the steps of the Idaho Statehouse during a rally in support of same sex marriage in Boise on Tuesday night May 13, 2014. U.S. Magistrate Judge Candy Dale ruled earlier in the day that Idaho's ban on gay marriage is unconstitutional. (AP Photo/The Idaho Statesman, Kyle Green)

Boise, Idaho -- A federal magistrate judge on Wednesday rejected a request from Idaho's governor to put same-sex weddings on hold while he appeals her ruling from a day earlier that struck down the state's same-sex marriage ban.

U.S. District Magistrate Judge Candy Dale wrote that the appeal is unlikely to succeed, so there's no reason to keep the state from granting marriage licenses to same-sex couples starting Friday.

Dale noted she already found that Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter's arguments lacked legal merit when she struck down the ban Tuesday evening. She said allowing Idaho to continue enforcing its laws against same-sex marriage would irreparably harm the four couples who sued over the ban, along with other gay couples.

"Nor does the public interest favor preserving a status quo that deprives individuals of their constitutional rights," Dale wrote.

The nation's highest court last year found that the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act that forbade the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriage improperly deprived gay couples of due process.

Gay rights activists have since won multiple lower-court cases, and expectations are high that the Supreme Court eventually will rule that gays can marry in every state. So far, same-sex marriage is legal in 17 states and the District of Columbia.

In the request to Dale, Otter's attorneys said they were convinced that if the judge wouldn't issue a stay, the Ninth Circuit or Supreme Court would.

"That conviction is based on the fact that the Ninth Circuit granted such a stay in the California same-sex marriage case, the Sixth district did the same in the Michigan same-sex marriage case, and the United States Supreme Court did the same in the Utah same-sex marriage case," Otter's attorneys wrote.

Also Wednesday, a federal judge ruled that a national group cannot defend Oregon's same-sex marriage ban after the state's attorney general refused to do so. U.S. District Judge Michael McShane denied the motion to intervene from the National Organization for Marriage.

The decision paves the way for a ruling on the constitutionality of Oregon's same-sex marriage ban, which could come at any time.